Thinning-out the seedlings

The little seedlings under my new cloches are growing very rapidly. I am very pleased with the cloches so far - the seeds germinated much more rapidly under them, and the germination rate looks good. So good in fact that I have already had to thin them out. I always sow seeds quite thickly, and then thin the seedlings when they are a couple of inches tall. This is an appropriate approach for me in my very small garden, but in a bigger plot - say an allotment - this might not be the best way to do it, because it is unavoidably quite labour-intensive.

Today I removed the cloches one by one, watered the soil beneath them to minimise root disturbance for the little plants, and then removed by hand a number of the seedlings, creating suitable gaps between the ones left behind. These are the beetroot:-

My pictures are taken at the "Before" stage, and the seedlings are obviously too closely-spaced.  Eventually there will need to be perhaps 5 or 6cm between plants in the case of beetroot, and more, perhaps 8 - 10cm, in the case of Parsnips. You need to give the plants enough space to develop, such that the mature roots are not touching each other. Referring to the Beetroot plants in the photo above, I would remove about two in every three.

As I went down the rows removing seedlings I collected the thinnings in a pot-saucer and eventually put them in a compost bin. This avoids leaving them around to attract slugs. I think that removing the seedlings, which inevitably involves a little bit of damage to them, probably releases a strong aroma which attracts all the beasties for miles around. When I have finished the thinning I give the plants another watering, just to ensure they are firmly in place, and to assist with recovering from any "shock" they may have experienced when the soil around them was disturbed.

As well as the beetroot, I thinned the Parsnips and the Hamburg Parsley. The tiny seedlings look quite similar.  One of the advantages of sowing your seeds in stright rows is that when they come up you can more easily differentiate between them and the inevitable weed seedlings. This is Hamburg Parsley, which has quite narrow leaves:

And these are Parsnips, with wider leaves:

I will have a second go at this in a couple of weeks' time, when I see which seedlings are the strongest.

If the weather forecast is to be believed we are due to get temperatures up to 21C in the next few days, so I might have to consider removing the cloches to ensure the seedlings don't get TOO warm!

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Charity appeal.

Would any of my regular readers like to do me a favour by sponsoring my daughter to run a Marathon? My younger daughter Fiona is running in the Paris Marathon this coming weekend. She will be putting herself through all the pain in aid of a good cause - she is trying to raise £1000 for the charity Oxfam, which helps homeless and disadvantaged people all over the world. I'd be very proud of Fiona if (when) she completes the course, and even more proud if she meets her financial target. If any of you could spare a few quid, I'm sure Oxfam (and Fiona) would be very grateful... Here's a link to her JustGiving site. Donations can be made in any currency you like - JustGiving sorts it all out for you. Thanks! :)